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Copyright 2002 Times Newspapers Limited
The Times (London)
December 30, 2002, Monday
SECTION: Features; Times2; 22
HEADLINE: Choice
BYLINE: Stephen Dalton

THE WINTER GUEST (1997). Channel 4, 12.30am

The highly assured directing debut of the stage and screen star Alan Rickman is adapted from a play by Sharman Macdonald, and takes place over a single day in a wintry Scottish village. Among a diverse ensemble cast, the real-life mother and daughter Phyllida Law and Emma Thompson share the main dramatic meat in an elegant meditation on grief, mortality and loss. (108 min)

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, December 30, 2002

Copyright New York Times
December 29, 2002
10 Moments in Theater
By BEN BRANTLEY

Here, in strictly alphabetical order, are 10 shows that left impressions that have yet to blur in memory:

8. `PRIVATE LIVES' Noël Coward without camp, for a change. In this delectable British import, directed by Howard Davies, Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman restored the authentic sex appeal, and subliminal pain, to a show usually presented, with excesses of drollery, as a tarted-up old coquette.

Magda
Canada - Sunday, December 29, 2002

Copyright 2002 Guardian Newspapers Limited
The Guardian (London)
December 28, 2002
SECTION: The Guide, Pg. 51
HEADLINE: The Guide: THE WEEK'S BEST FILMS: YOUR DAILY PICK OF THE TOP MOVIES ON TERRESTRIAL TV, REVIEWED BY PAUL HOWLETT
BYLINE: PAUL HOWLETT

Monday 30 December

The Winter Guest
(Alan Rickman, 1997)
12.30am, C4

Rickman, the baddie American audiences love to hate, nips behind the camera to film the Sharman Macdonald play he also directed on stage. Set in a Scottish fishing village, it stars Rickman, the British baddy, Phyllida Law and Emma Thompson, real-life mother and daughter, as mother and grief-stricken daughter treading precariously towards a new understanding. There are other strands of low-key, everyday life, delicately and confidently handled by Rickman; and Seamus Garvey's photography is stunning.

Georgiana (they didn't quite get that one right...)
Seattle - Saturday, December 28, 2002

MAJOR BECKETT ALERT!

In today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram (edited for the relevant stuff):

"(A) landmark series called Beckett on Film, in which all 19 of Beckett's stage plays were filmed with such directors and actors as Neil Jordan, Atom Egoyan, David Mamet, Harold Pinter, Julianne Moore, Jeremy Irons and, in his final acting performance, the late John Gielgud.

Co-produced by Irish stage director Michael Colgan and film producer Alan Moloney, the 2000-2001 project finally comes to the United States, and more importantly, to North Texas (this program aired elsewhere in the States in September). Seven of the films air Sunday on PBS in a program hosted by Irons. On Jan. 1, Beckett's best-known work, Waiting for Godot, airs in celebration of the play's 50th anniversary."

While the 7 films are not identified, it's probable that "Play" (which Rickman appeared in) is one of them as the article praises Anthony Minghella for his direction of it. So if you want to see AR in a non-hair part, check your tv guides for tomorrow.
Magda
Canada - Saturday, December 28, 2002

Copyright 2002 Financial Times Information
All rights reserved
Global News Wire - Europe Intelligence Wire
Copyright 2002 - Birmingham Post and Mail Ltd
Evening Mail
December 21, 2002
HEADLINE: MAN IN SIGNED PICTURES SCAM

A MAN has admitted selling fake autographs of film stars including Roger Moore and Kate Winslett during a show at the National Exhibition Centre.

Dealer Larry Bore originally denied all charges over supposedly autographed pictures which also included Helena Bonham-Carter, Emma Thompson and actor Alan Rickman. The pictures had certificates of authenticity or stickers 'guaranteeing' the signatures were genuine and were on sale for up to pounds 70 each on Bore's Hollywood Store stand at a memorabilia show at the NEC in November 2000. But during an earlier hearing Warwick Crown Court heard the stars had confirmed they were not theirs.

At a pre-trial review hearing at Warwick Crown Court Bore, 46, of Bury, Lancs, changed his pleas to guilty on 14 charges of applying false trade descriptions.

But Bore continues to deny further charges of obtaining and attempting to obtain money by deception from the sale of the fake signatures. Judge Martin Coates adjourned the case and Bore was granted bail.

Georgiana <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Thursday, December 26, 2002

Copyright 2002 EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS
Sunday Express
December 22, 2002
SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 57
HEADLINE: REVIEW KIDS; PUT ON YOUR THINKING CAP AND TRY OUR CHRISTMAS QUIZ

. . . . . . . . . .
40 Which Hogwarts teacher - played by Alan Rickman in the films - seems to always have it in for Harry Potter?
. . . . . . . . . .

Georgiana <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Thursday, December 26, 2002

December 22, 2002
SECTION: COLUMNS; Pg. 40
HEADLINE: WILLIAM HICKEY
BYLINE: WILLIAM HICKEY

THE Christmas party with the hottest guest list went unnoticed the other day. Heiress Sabrina Guinness threw a party at the Funky Buddha bar in London's Mayfair attended by such celebs as Mick Jagger, Prince Andrew and Alan Rickman among others. Jagger is an old flame of Guinness, who has pioneered Youth Cable Television, a charity helping 300 children from tough west London estates, but he didn't try to rekindle the passion. "He was the last to go, after dancing with every blonde in sight, " says my man with the cocktail shaker.
Georgiana <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Thursday, December 26, 2002

Copyright 2002 The Financial Times Limited
Financial Times (London)
December 18, 2002, Wednesday USA Edition 1
SECTION: THE ARTS; Pg. 10
HEADLINE: The year of 'the Goat': US THEATRE REVIEW OF 2002: Brendan Lemon looks back on fine musicals, top talent, and a play that had critics divided
BYLINE: By BRENDAN LEMON

. . . Of the new plays, Edward Albee's The Goat came to town with controversial subject matter. The playwright's first Broadway outing in almost two decades, The Goat gave us a middle-aged man's confession to his wife that he was in love, carnally and emotionally, with a barnyard animal. The play divided critics and audiences, was awarded the Best Play Tony, and featured a replacement cast, Sally Field and Bill Irwin, even stronger than the initial leads, Mercedes Ruehl and Bill Pullman.

The only other acting duo on a par with those of The Goat were Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman in a revival of Coward's Private Lives, which sailed over from the West End. Rickman's physical and emotional daring were impressive, matched in courage by Alan Bates's in a production of Turgenev's Fortune's Fool, which earned Bates a Tony. A well-received Medea starring Fiona Shaw also arrived from England. . . .

Georgiana <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Wednesday, December 18, 2002

Nice pic on Empireonline film mag page of AR at The European Film Awards. (You will have to click on thumbnail)
Sue
England - Tuesday, December 17, 2002

To expand a little more on "The Billy Elliot Boy". AR's appearance is a whole whopping second and a half. It shows him arriving to the premiere of the film.
Claudia
GA US - Tuesday, December 17, 2002

AR is not in the film "Billy Elliot" itself but appears in the documentary, "The Billy Elliot Boy". which will be shown in the UK on Channel 4 at 10.45 on Jauary 1st.
vs
- Tuesday, December 17, 2002

Entertainment Weekly
12/20-27/02 Issue
"The Best and Worst of Stage, 2002"
[No. 9 of 10 in the "Best" Category]

"PRIVATE LIVES (Broadway) Some 70 years after Noel Coward and Gertie Lawrence gave us a gin-soaked glimpse into their 'Private Lives,' Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan made the comedy of marital manners froth like a just-shaken martini. In last spring's Tony-winning revival the duo played divorcees whose destinies are so intertwined that they honeymoon--with new spouses--in the same hotel. In neighboring rooms. With adjacent terraces. Every quip and caterwaul danced with delicious aplomb. In Coward's words, a marvelous party."
Lily
Chicago, IL - Tuesday, December 17, 2002

Copyright 2002 Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail Ltd.
Daily Record
December 7, 2002, Saturday
SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 6
HEADLINE: HANGING ON THE TELEPHONE; THE BRITISH MAN IS A COMPLICATED BEAST, SAYS CASUALTY STAR CHRISTINE STEPHEN-DALY
BYLINE: Julie Maccaskill

Afternoon Christine ... we're not interrupting you in the middle of a medical drama are we?

No. I've got some free time between production meetings and filming.

Sorting out future storylines for your Casualty character Lara?

Sort of. It's time life got happier for Lara - she's been pretty miserable after being in prison and her boyfriend dying. It's time she had a smile on her face for once. A fling would do her the world of good. What sort of bloke would Lara lock lips with?

Lara would need someone who is motivated and intelligent and can give as good as he gets. She couldn't handle someone who doesn't have anything between the ears - she would get bored quickly.

Who would be your perfect on-screen partner?

I'd have to say Alan Rickman. I think he's pretty sexy and has a gorgeous voice.

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, December 16, 2002

Copyright 2002 Guardian Newspapers Limited
The Observer
December 8, 2002
SECTION: Observer Review Pages, Pg. 9
HEADLINE: Review: Screen: TRAILER TRASH
BYLINE: JASON SOLOMONS

+ EAU DE CLOONEY OF THE WEEK George Clooney screened his directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind last Sunday to an audience that included Joseph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Terry Gilliam, Stephen Frears and Gillian Anderson. The stylish bio-pic of American gameshow host and CIA assassin Chuck Barris boasts great performances from Sam Rockwell as Barris and Drew Barrymore as his girlfriend.

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, December 16, 2002

Copyright 2002 Guardian Newspapers Limited
The Observer
December 8, 2002
SECTION: Observer Food Monthly, Pg. 31
HEADLINE: Observer Food Monthly: You don't have to get a table at the Ivy to watch Tom Cruise eat wings...: Bjork orders ribs, Jarvis Cocker likes his cheese fondue to come with a yodel... Sue Webster reveals her secret 'celebrity ' restaurant list
BYLINE: Sue Webster

Tiroler Hut
27 Westbourne Grove, London W2 (020 7727 3981)

It's not so much the house specials (sausages, sauerkraut and schnapps) and waitresses dressed in Heidi-style dirndls that makes it a favourite of supermodels and actors, as the unforgettable cowbell show and accordion-playing,yodelling owner.

Who goes: Jarvis Cocker, Kate Moss, Stella McCartney, Paul Weller, Alan Rickman, Ruby Wax.

Celebrity order cheese fondue, of course.

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, December 16, 2002

Copyright 2002 Evening Herald (Plymouth)
Evening Herald (Plymouth)
December 9, 2002
SECTION: Features; Hobbies; TV/Video; Pg. 22
HEADLINE: Dead Funny

Ever since Mike Yarwood first had his own show back in 1968, those pesky impressionists have been 10 a penny. On TV alone we've had the likes of Rory Bremner, Phil Cool and, most recently, Alistair McGowan. But DEAD RINGERS (BBC2, 9pm) is still a breath of fresh air.

The team has made a successful transition from radio after a pilot edition earlier in the year and the start of a full series on BBC2.

For those who've never heard of it, the show began on Radio 4. After eight series and numerous awards, the Beeb decided it would make a wonderful TV programme - paving the way for Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Kevin Connelly and Mark Perry to become as famous as the likes of Bremner and McGowan. While casual viewers may be fooled into thinking this is just another in a long line of impressionist shows, they'd be wrong. A subtle cross between Bremner's political satire and McGowan's celebrity-based material, Dead Ringers concentrates on tackling stars not previously seen on their rivals' programmes. So, while you might spot the odd overlap, expect to see uncannily perfect impersonations of Brian Sewell, Alan Rickman, Judi Dench, Johnny Vegas and Ian McKellen.

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, December 16, 2002

Copyright 2002 Belfast Telegraph Newspapers Ltd.
Belfast Telegraph
December 12, 2002
HEADLINE: Kids give Goldilocks thumbs-up
BYLINE: By Mandi Millar

. . . Chris Robinson was truly outstanding as the baddie Wizardo, with more than a touch of the Sheriff of Nottinghams a la Alan Rickman about him - worth it for his performance alone. . . .

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, December 16, 2002

Copyright 2002 The Spectator Limited
The Spectator
December 14, 2002
SECTION: Pg. 96
HEADLINE: Yuletide movies; Arts Film
BYLINE: Mark Steyn

Last year at this time, I picked out the best Christmas war movies in the confident expectation we'd soon be taking Baghdad.

. . . . . . . . . .

And finally, on a topical note . . .

THE FIRST TERRORIST CHRISTMAS MOVIE A barefoot Bruce Willis swings into action when a gang of evil-doers hijack a Christmas Eve office party in Die Hard (1988). If you want to see terrorists getting whumped by Americans, you'll have to make do with Alan Rickman this holiday season. Let's hope for better next year.

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, December 16, 2002

From the Independent on Sunday (London)
December 15, 2002, Monday
SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 11
HEADLINE: THEATRE: SEX, DRUGS AND SHAKY RELATIONS (WITH POLITE SMILES ALL ROUND)
BYLINE: Kate Bassett Love games: Indira Varma and Chiwetel Ejiofor play happy families - briefly - in the Donmar's classy' revival of Coward's The Vortex' GERAINT; LEWIS

. . . . . . . . . . Grandage also shifts Coward towards the 21st century, underlining the contemporary relevance of the characters' obsession with youth, drugs and the self. Though Christopher Oram's sets are essentially in period, with Art Deco dressing tables and Bakelite phones, the cast reflect today's multiracial London. This can, however, feel like an uncomfortable halfway house, as semi-posh accents waver and grate against extremely arch exchanges. One might also wonder what point, if any, is being made by the drug addict being played by a black British actor. Is this meant to be colour-blind casting or is there a trace of racial stereotyping? Whatever the reasons, it's noticeable that Howard Davies' more relaxed, recent production of Private Lives - with Alan Rickman - felt more persuasively fresh and modern.

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, December 16, 2002

Alan Rickman with Love Actually co-star, Martine McCutcheon at the first screening of George Clooney's directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, in today's Evening Standard (thanks, Sue!).

Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
TX USA - Friday, December 13, 2002

There is a nice pic in tonights London ES(Evening Standard)Magazine of AR and Martine McCutcheon at the premiere of George Clooneys film. He appears to be wearing some sort of parka!!(Possibly getting ready for imminent invasion!) I have scanned it to Suzanne.
Sue
England - Friday, December 13, 2002

The Girls on Top Series 1 and 2--Region 1 DVDs will be released 02/11/2003. The Man did a small appearance in one episode and a voice over in another. But for anyone that likes Ruby Wax, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, or Tracy Ullman this will be worth the buy. Amazon has it for pre-order at $29.99 per DVD.
Claudia
GA US - Friday, December 13, 2002

Hi All. For anyone that might have missed the European Film Awards, here are a few pics.

European Film Awards

More on it later.

Claudia
GA US - Sunday, December 08, 2002

Copyright 2002 The Press Association Limited
Press Association
December 7, 2002, Saturday 04:02 PM Eastern Time
LENGTH: 302 words
HEADLINE: WINSLET NAMED EUROPE'S FAVOURITE ACTRESS
BYLINE: Anthony Barnes, Showbusiness Editor, PA News

Kate Winslet was named Europe's favourite actress tonight at a glitzy movie awards bash. . . .

. . British guests at the event tonight - hosted by comic Mel Smith and Italian actress Asia Argento - included Jeremy Irons, Alice Evans and her fiance Ioan Gruffudd, Alan Rickman and Pete Postlethwaite.

Georgiana
Seattle - Saturday, December 07, 2002

ALAN VCR ALERT!!!
Our own Alan Rickman will be a presenter at the 2002 European Film Awards, to be broadcast live tomorrow, December 7, 2002, from Italy.
The show will broadcast in the US on the "Sundance Channel."
A live webcast of the show can be seen on this website:
2002 European Film Awards
Kimberly
Michigan, USA - Friday, December 06, 2002

Copyright 2002 EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS
The Express
December 5, 2002
SECTION: COLUMNS; Pg. 36
HEADLINE: DAY & NIGHT; DAY & NIGHT
BYLINE: KATHRYN SPENCER, JULIE CARPENTER & KATE BOHDANOWICZ

HE HAS played some of the most iconic characters in movie history, from the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves to Professor Snape in Harry Potter, but clearly Alan Rickman feels there is one film that never got the credit it deserved. The neglected masterpiece? Sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest. "It is a fantastic film," insists Rickman, who starred as a snooty English Shakespearian actor playing Dr Lazarus, a humanoid-reptilian with a prosthetic head, in the Star Trek satire co-starring Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver. "The words sci-fi and spoof do not do it justice at all. You should get it out on video, I promise you it will make you laugh. It's got a huge cult following."

Yes, Alan, but so have The Teletubbies.

Georgiana
Seattle - Thursday, December 05, 2002

DAILY MAIL (London)
December 5, 2002
HEADLINE: MAGIC MOMENT

* THE aloof Alan Rickman, currently to be seen as the sinister Professor Snape in Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, tells me he has recently finished work on Richard Curtis's new feature, Love Actually, starring Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon. 'I didn't get to kiss Martine, or Hugh,' whispers 56-year-old Rickman dryly, when I bumped into him at a Bafta screening thrash at the Pharmacy in Notting Hill. 'But I did get to kiss Emma Thompson, which was a consolation.'

Georgiana
Seattle - Thursday, December 05, 2002

This is just a quick heads-up for anyone in UK with access to BBC4. On Fri this week, at midnight, is a repeat of Joan Bakewell's interview with Christopher Hampton, who wrote LLD amongst other things. It was on last night, and I taped it in the hope of some passing comment about the RSC's staging of it!! Can't think why?! Boy, was I rewarded - hence, the heads-up - there was a 2 minute, then a further 1 minute clip of the STAGE PRODUCTION, with AR going at it full throttle - boy, did he look good!
I would urge anyone with access to BBC4 to watch/video whatever - those 3 minutes are worth it! That's another video tape, highly labelled and hidden away so there's no accidental taping over! Delicious!
Sue
Lincoln, UK - Wednesday, December 04, 2002

Copley News Service
November 27, 2002 Wednesday
SECTION: WASHINGTON WIRE; FILMS IN FOCUS
HEADLINE: New and recent releases
BYLINE: Copley News Service

"HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS" - It feels like a big machine stretching its budget, but the cogs of this sequel include the delightful young heroes (Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson) plus the rest of the enjoyable Hogwarts gang. Alan Rickman is barely used and new, white-maned villain Jason Isaacs (who is like Hitler's idea of the perfect Englishman) seems to be waiting for the next film. The finest thing, along with sets and effects (lots of spiders, which may creep-out some viewers), is the wise, withered voice of the late Richard Harris as Dumbledore. 2 hr., 41 min. (Elliott) Rated PG. 3 stars.

Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, December 04, 2002

There was an article about Kenneth Branagh in yesterday's San Francisco Examiner; here's the AR-related part:

"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" also marks the first time Branagh has acted with computer-generated images. Many of his scenes, particularly the covers for Lockhart's books (in Harry Potter's world, "still" photographs can move) involve creatures such as pixies that exist only in the finished, edited film.....

Branagh did get to share a few scenes with real-life actors, notably Alan Rickman, who plays Professor Snape, and Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint who portray Harry and Ron. (Branagh calls them "good company.")

While waiting around on the set, Branagh particularly enjoyed talking with Rickman. He says, "I'm a huge fan of his. Just the sitting and chewing the cud stuff was really exciting. He's so smart and he has a million stories. We had great fun."

Magda
Canada - Tuesday, December 03, 2002

All you need is love, actually
(MegaStar, Nov 20, 2002, by Andy Stevens)

Laura Linney is out and about in London filming next year’s Brit flick hit-in-waiting, Love Actually. But that’s not all. There’s even talk of a meaty cameo for the uncrowned queen of London celebdom-Madonna.

Clever clogs screen writer Richard Curtis (Four Weddings, Notting Hill) is directing the series of 10 love stories, in a variety of locations from Kenya to France to Chiswick, in west London.

And Linney...teams up once again with man-mountain Irish actor Liam Neeson in the movie. The pair first worked together on Broadway, where Linney cut her thesp teeth before switching to big screen and bigger moolah.

A star-speckled Love Actually cast includes dithering Hugh Grant, inscrutable Colin Firth and, er, Martine McCutcheon....She in fact plays a tea lady to Grant’s British Prime Minister.

Alan “the actor” Rickman also takes a major role, while there are noteworthy eye-candy cameos for supermodel Claudia Schiffer, Shannon “American Pie” Elizabeth and ubiquitous teen-flick floozy Denise Richards.

Claire
From CF website via LILY on the GB, - Monday, December 02, 2002

The Evening Standard (London)
December 2, 2002
HEADLINE: TV CHIEFS RULE OUT PROBE AS FAVOURITE IS OUSTED FROM POPSTARS GIRL BAND
BYLINE: Patrick Sawer
WOMEN CROWD AROUND CLOONEY AT BAFTA SHOW
By Tim Cooper

Hollywood heart-throb George Clooney flew into London and swiftly found himself in a familiar position - besieged by beautiful women - after giving the British film academy a preview of his directorial debut.

Gillian Anderson, Martine McCutcheon, Mariella Frostrup, Maryam d'Abo and Laura Bailey all made a beeline for the star after Clooney, 41, showed Bafta members his film Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind.

The former ER star directs himself in the GBP 19 million film, to be released here in three months and based on the life of Chuck Barris, a US gameshow host who later claimed he was a CIA hit man. Clooney, who also chatted with actors Joseph Fiennes and Alan Rickman and directors Hugh Hudson, Stephen Frears and Terry Gilliam, played down his own awards prospects but tipped his star, newcomer Sam Rockwell, to win an Oscar for his portrayal of Barris. 'I think it will be a crime if he does not,' he said at a party at the Notting Hill restaurant Pharmacy afterwards. 'I've seen the other performances this year and if he is not in that five I will be shocked.'

Clooney, who brought the film in under budget and ahead of time, said he regretted the moustache he wore for his role as the CIA man who recruits Barris. 'I was stuck with it for six months and it didn't go down very well with anyone. I looked like a biker from the Village People.'

Martine McCutcheon, who chatted with Clooney, said she had been 'pleasantly surprised' by his debut behind the camera, adding: 'I'd definitely give it 10 out of 10.'

McCutcheon, making her own big-screen debut opposite Hugh Grant in Love Actually, confessed she had been immune to Clooney's charms until now.

'I've never watched ER but I was really blown away by the talent of the man this evening,' she said. 'He was very humble and very nervous about the film, which I thought was really nice.' .

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, December 02, 2002

From The People
December 1, 2002, Sunday
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 19
HEADLINE: I WOULD RATHER PLAY WITH MY KIDS THAN MAKE ANOTHER FILM; LIAM NEESON DROPS HINT THAT HE MAY QUIT ACTING
BYLINE: Brenda O'neill

. . . . . . . . . .
Before he can return to life in the theatre though, Neeson will be straight back into movies after Christmas, albeit in a public relations role.

He will be joining the rest of the cast of screenwriter Richard Curtis directorial debut Love Actually for its January premiere.

Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Martine McCutcheon, Madonna and Rowan Atkinson star in Curtis's most anticipated movie since his hit Notting Hill.

Georgiana (. . . a JANUARY premiere?!!!
Seattle - Monday, December 02, 2002

From The Washington Post
November 29, 2002, Friday, Final Edition
SECTION: WEEKEND; Pg. T46
HEADLINE: Film Capsules/Capsule reviews

. . .HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS (PG, 161 minutes) -- Something evil's lurking in the bowels of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) attends. And in this second installment in the Potter series, the young wizard and pals Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Sara Watson) try to find it. This movie, which marks the late Richard Harris's last appearance as headmaster Dumbledore, isn't as charming as the original. It's darker and narratively more longwinded. And the special effects seem to be competing with the Lord of the Rings movies. Also, many of the movie's memorable elements and characters (including Robbie Coltrane, Alan Rickman and Julie Walters) are rendered into near-cameo players. But nothing from J.K. Rowling's book is left to wither away. And that should please the vast reading audience that'll watch the movie. Contains some emotionally intense moments. Area theaters. . . . .

Georgiana <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Saturday, November 30, 2002

From Maclean's
November 25, 2002
SECTION: FILM; Pg. 73
HEADLINE: CHAMBER OF MARVELS
BYLINE: BY BRIAN BETHUNE
HIGHLIGHT: Harry Potter, take two, is as stylish as the original

. . . Meanwhile, the returning members of the stellar British adult cast, including Richard Harris (Dumbledore), who died on Oct. 25, are given very little to do -- a real loss in the case of Alan Rickman's snarling Snape. But two newcomers, Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy and Kenneth Branagh as the narcissistic fop Gilderoy Lockhart, turn in note-perfect performances. With his hair curled just so, and the smuggest of twinkles in his eye, Branagh provides an exquisite send-up of his own bombastic reputation. . . .

Georgiana <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Saturday, November 30, 2002

From UK Newsquest Regional Press - This is Hampshire
November 28, 2002
SECTION: Leisure
HEADLINE: HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS (PG) ****.
BYLINE: Damon Smith (author email andrew.white@soton-echo.co.uk)
DATELINE: Southampton

. . . Little has changed at Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore (Richard Harris) still presides over the school with majesty, abetted by his right-hand lady Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith), while wily Professor Snape (Alan Rickman) continues to deal out detentions and abuse to all but his beloved Slytherin house. The only new addition is the new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), a legendary explorer who sends the female pupils into a dreamy swoon. . . .

Georgiana
Seattle - Thursday, November 28, 2002

Bristol Evening Post
November 19, 2002
EDITION: WESTON SUPER MARE
SECTION: News :People :Appeals/campaigns, Pg.13
HEADLINE: Movie star joins fight to save town's cinema; Alan Rickman throws weight behind picture house campaign
BYLINE: JOHN THOMPSON

INTERNATIONAL actor and Bafta award-winner Alan Rickman is throwing his weight behind the Curzon Community Cinema in Clevedon.

Mr Rickman, who plays Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter blockbusters, and who starred in Truly, Madly, Deeply, which was partly filmed in Bristol, has agreed to become a patron of the 80-year-old picture house. He joins a high-profile list which includes Aardman Animation directors Nick Park, David Sproxton and Peter Lord, Bristol actor Tony Robinson and television film director Sir Charles Elton, of Clevedon Court.

Mr Rickman said: "Good luck to everyone at the Curzon. This is a great project and I am very happy to be a patron."

As well as the Harry Potter films, he also starred as Hanz Gruber in Die Hard and as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood and the Prince of Thieves, for which he received a Bafta.

Curzon manager Jon Webber said: "The news that such an internationally famous star as Alan Rickman is supporting our project is just overwhelming.

"The credibility this gives to our restoration plans is immeasurable."

The announcement is the fillip the Curzon needs after announcing last month that its future could be under threat if it proved unable to obtain funding to return the building to its former glory.

Mr Webber told a public meeting that a National Lottery Heritage grant of 170,000 and the entire Lottery bid of 4.6 million could now be turned down.

He said that there was concern from the Lottery bosses about whether the cinema could raise its match-funding of 1.7 million.

The Curzon is believed to be the oldest purpose-built, continuously-operated cinema in the world.

j.thompson@bepp.co.uk

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, November 25, 2002

The Evening Standard (London)
November 21, 2002
SECTION: Pg. 34
HEADLINE: My little black book of horrors
BYLINE: Nicholas De Jongh

Our fearsome theatre critic Nicholas de Jongh would rather be kind than cruel

# MACBETH, when looking back on a life full of murder, bloodshed and dark-doings at dead of night, said he had supped full with horrors. Theatre critics, in contrast to Shakespeare's murderous hero, have the horrors instead of supper, at least sometimes we do. It's about such horrors I have recently found myself brooding. For in the past month I have come up against two productions of peculiar ghastliness. Romeo and Juliet, The Musical, laden with bland music that passed you by with an apologetic shrug of its shoulders, was infested with lyrics by Don Black of stupefying incompetence - Shakespeare's words replaced with rhyming. The production of Somerset Maugham's Home and Beauty was a gross, farcical travesty of the satirical original. It was after that ghastly production that I was reminded of my little black book of horrors which I keep locked away and only bring out to scribble shocked, unprintable details of some of the worst experiences I have ever endured in the dark hell of a bad night at the theatre. There they all are, the weird miscast actors and actresses in full-frontal rant and exhibiting themselves to the audience rather than even trying to interact on stage.

There I have scrawled abuse of playwrights, short-lived writers and some too long-lived who have foisted boredom instead of amusement and lines so gross, vulgar and empty that I thoroughly wished that people could be sentenced to several years' hard labour of seeing such plays and musicals. Ah, the musicals, which constitute a unique genre of horror - who now remembers anything but the title of Bernadette or Which Witch? Not me, but the malady of the titles lingers on.

Yet people assume there can be few greater pleasures for a critic than sitting at his or her Powerbook dreaming up insults and wittily mocking phrases to bring a rotten show to its knees.

Actually, this assumption is wrong. It's usually no pleasure savaging a production. It's infinitely harder to be a witty denigrator than an enthusiastic applauder. The most rewarding aspect of my job is to try to communicate enthusiasm and to explain precisely how and why a play was a source of pleasure.

I go to the theatre in the hope of being delighted, diverted, enlightened and inspired. To watch a really bad production leaves me depressed and let down.

For instance in 1998 there were great expectations when Alan Rickman and Helen Mirren were paired as the doomed lovers in Antony and Cleopatra.

It turned out to be the greatest asp disaster of modern times - with its reallife writhing, the snake that kills Cleopatra was quite the most exciting performer around. As I wrote at the time, Mirren and Rickman "rose to erotic ardour with little more enthusiasm than a pair of glumly non-mating pandas at London Zoo, coaxed to do their duty to perpetuate the species".

Rickman was to be seen sprawling with Cleopatra on a bed of cushions and mounting her, "as if she were a mare he would sooner not have got astride".

Well yes, on this occasion, I wanted to express my resentment at the perverse, vacuous reading of the play that had been inflicted upon us. I felt it was an insult for two such talented performers to put on such lazy performances.

The National's Trevor Nunn is a master Shakespearian director. Why had he not intervened? It's when I have that "how dare they be so perverse/conceited/ vain/wilfully misguided" reaction that it feels appropriate to express resentment at an insultingly bad production.

Usually I feel a sinking of spirits rather than delight in attacking actors or production. Sarah Kane's play Cleansed, with its feast of cruelties and violence, was performed only a few months before her tragic suicide.

I am squeamish about watching simulated violence and this fact perhaps explains my opening sentence: "Watching Sarah Kane's Cleansed was one of the most repellent experiences of my theatregoing life."

But there was not a flicker of pleasure in so writing. I did not try to be unpleasant at the play's expense. The most damning words I used were "luridly preposterous" - when referring to the excess of horrors.

For the idea that slamming a play leaves this critic in a state of self-righteous glee belongs in the world of B-movie fantasy where Dracula-like theatre critics prowl by night, seeking to suck the blood of innocent actors and playwrights.

GRAPHIC: SMOKE, NO FIRE: VICTORIA HAMILTON AND JAMIE THEAKSTON IN HOME AND BEAUTY

Georgiana (...some critics are inordinately fond of their own excreta . . .)
Seattle - Monday, November 25, 2002

Daily Star
November 22, 2002
SECTION: COLUMNS; Pg. 13
HEADLINE: BITCHES WITH JULIA ETHERINGTON, MEL MYERS AND AMY WATTS; SPOTTED

IN London. . .Actor Alan Rickman walking into ultra-cool bar Teatro on Shaftesbury Avenue; Keith Duffy walking past Attica bar and restaurant; and Nick Moran inside the trendy celeb-haunt talking to a bunny girl over a cocktail. . . .

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, November 25, 2002

From The Spectator
November 23, 2002
SECTION: Pg. 78 80
HEADLINE: Hogwarts report; Arts: Cinema
BYLINE: Rachel Johnson

. . . . . . . . . . Now I never thought I'd say this, but I thought Kenneth Branagh, who plays the prancing, golden-coiffed Lockhart, was a hoot. We first meet the fabulous fraudster in Flourish and Boots bookshop, where he is signing copies of his autobiography, Magical Me, before taking up his post as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. Girls swoon, boys roll their eyes.

He says things like 'fame is a fickle friend, Harry' and flashes his white teeth (he has won Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award a record five times).

I am a fan of the Potter cast of actors (Maggie Smith, Robert Harris, Miriam Margolyes, Robbie Coltrane etc. ). But I actually forked out my GBP 8 to see Alan Rickman, a sulphurously sexy actor to whom I am alarmingly susceptible. (I once walked past him in Westbourne Grove, and willed him to look at me, but he strode past, tossing his head, beak in the air like a Roman emperor, as I wilted with longing. ) So it was with somewhat mixed feelings that I sat and watched the unfashionable Branagh whip the movie from underneath the cruel, hooked nose of Alan Rickman - an actor who has made scene-stealing something of a speciality - and everyone else, for that matter, including the rather hormonal young stars.

For that pleasure alone, I give the movie two thumbs up.

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, November 25, 2002

From The Spectator
November 23, 2002
SECTION: Pg. 72 74
HEADLINE: Let's get physical; Arts: Henrietta Bredin on how actors and singers must learn to live dangerously
BYLINE: Henrietta Bredin

I'm standing in an airy top-floor studio in Crouch End, being taught how to faint. My sister and I used to do this endlessly, trying out ever-more histrionic modes of total collapse until parental patience ran out and we were chased back to bed. It's much harder now, beset by the stiffness and inhibitions of age, but still good fun once you get the hang of it. 'It's often easier if you're in costume, ' says the choreographer Quinny Sacks, pulling me to my feet and dusting me off. I can see what she means. Susanna has to stage a dramatic faint in Act I of The Marriage of Figaro, to distract the Count and Basilio. If she happens to be wearing a full-skirted number at the time, there'd be a nice bit of padding to cushion the fall.

When you pick up a programme in a theatre, the list of production team members can often include someone who might variously be listed as choreographer, movement director or even associate director. While the dividing lines between these disciplines have become increasingly blurred, the need for someone to devise or advise on movement in a performance has in many ways increased. Led by companies such as Theatre de Complicite and Cheek by Jowl, theatre has become ever more physical. The work that Sacks might undertake could range from teaching one person how to get themselves down on the floor and back up again, to drilling a dozen RSC actors in a complex series of dance steps for the sheep-shearing festivities in A Winter's Tale. The choreographer is the only person apart from the director working directly from the script and instructing or advising the performers. The right movement at the right point in the action can enhance the drama and create an emotional effect which the text alone is unable to produce.

The best stage dances I've seen are the ones that seem to emerge seamlessly from the drama, rather than standing out as selfconscious, artfully constructed moments. In the recent West End production of Coward's Private Lives, Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan wanted Sacks to create a sultry, sex-steeped tango for them to perform. Working together over a couple of rehearsal sessions it became clear that a tango was too mannered, too studied a thing for them to pull off naturally. 'It needed to be a dance that the characters of Amanda and Elyot would have been entirely familiar with, so that they could keep talking while they were doing it.' The brilliantly funny result was a barefoot, pyjamaclad, post-coital foxtrot, during which the two actors negotiated their way nonchalantly around the furniture and never let the steps get in the way of the real business of scoring points off each other. . . .

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, November 25, 2002

Whereas from the Herald (Glasgow) of the same date: "Alan Rickman does his reliable one-note villain thing as the Sheriff of Nottingham."

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, November 25, 2002

From The Guardian;s 23 November Daily Pick of the Top Movies on Terrestrial TV, RHPOT: Alan Rickman's pantomime Sheriff: "I'll cut his heart out with a rusty spoon!"

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, November 25, 2002

UK Newsquest Regional Press - This is Hampshire
November 24, 2002
SECTION: News
HEADLINE: Hugh lands role in Potter movie.
BYLINE: Sports reporter (author email echosport@soton-echo.co.uk)
DATELINE: WINCHESTER

"I just thought I fitted the description of the character in the book - a bit small and mad," says Hugh Mitchell.

His inkling triggered a magical story, because director, Chris Columbus, agreed and chose Hugh (13) to play little Colin Creevey, amateur photographer and Harry's hero-worshipper, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

. . . Filming started about 10 days after he was told last November. "I first met everyone when we read through the script," said Hugh.

"It was really surreal meeting all the famous people. I talked to Alan Rickman and he was really nice, a bit shy." . . .

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, November 25, 2002

The Observer
November 24, 2002
SECTION: OTV, Pg. 8
HEADLINE: OTV: Films
BYLINE: Philip French

Sunday
Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991) BBC1, 7.50pm

The longest, most expensive, but far from best swashbuckler inspired by the Earl of Locksley's guerrilla activities against the oppressive Norman establishment in the twelfth-century Midlands. Kevin Costner is a plain Robin, Morgan Freeman is his forceful Moorish sidekick, Mary Mastrantonio is a spirited Maid Marian. The show, however, is stolen by Alan Rickman's scenery-chewing Sheriff of Nottingham who'll stop at nothing - he'll even ban Christmas. Sean Connery makes an affecting uncredited appearance.

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, November 25, 2002

Sunday Times (London)
November 24, 2002, Sunday
SECTION: Features; Culture; 59
HEADLINE: Film choice
BYLINE: Edward Porter

Robin Hood - Prince Of Thieves (BBC1, 7.50pm)

Kevin Costner plays the wealth-distributing outlaw in a movie that successfully repackaged the character for the 1990s by giving him a touch of angst and making his adventures a bit more violent and explosive. While Robin is busy stealing from the rich, the Sheriff of Nottingham steals the show, thanks to Alan Rickman's extravagant performance in that role. Dir: Kevin Reynolds (1991)

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, November 25, 2002

From The Associated Press
November 11, 2002, Monday, BC cycle
SECTION: Entertainment News
HEADLINE: Hogwarts yearbook: A guide to the characters in Harry Potter's sophomore year
BYLINE: By ANTHONY BREZNICAN, AP Entertainment Writer
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES

Severus Snape

Who: Potions teacher, head of Slytherin house.

Bio: Is he evil or good? Some would say this mean-spirited professor remains aligned with wicked forces, but so far Snape has proven himself to be a loyal follower of Dumbledore. Regardless, the dark-haired, growling teacher harbors a deep resentment for the boy wizard and enjoys seeing his favored pupil, Draco Malfoy, upstage Harry Potter.

Performer: Alan Rickman.

Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, November 22, 2002

From The Associated Press
November 11, 2002, Monday, BC cycle
SECTION: Entertainment News
HEADLINE: At the Movies: 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'
BYLINE: By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer

. . . Richard Harris' recent death makes his stately performance as Hogwarts master Dumbledore all the more poignant. Maggie Smith as crisp but kindly Professor McGonagall, Robbie Coltrane as noble behemoth Hagrid and Alan Rickman as sullen Professor Snape remain standouts among the adult cast. . . .

Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, November 22, 2002

In a graphic to an article in The Houston Chronicle, November 13, 2002, Wednesday 2 STAR EDITION (SECTION: HOUSTON; Pg. 1, HEADLINE: A Potter Primer; Harry's second act opens Friday; do you know your way around Hogwarts?), Snape is described as: "a professor you'll love to hate - a power-hungry bully."
Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, November 22, 2002

From The Washington Post
November 14, 2002, Thursday, Final Edition
SECTION: STYLE; Pg. C01
HEADLINE: Nothing Up His Sleeve; 'Harry Potter' Sequel Misses Quite a Few Storytelling Tricks
BYLINE: Stephen Hunter, Washington Post Staff Writer

. . . The rest of the cast is mostly old Brits underused and (one hopes) overpaid, with the single exception of Kenneth Branagh, who turns in an amusing if ultimately irrelevant performance as the school's most narcissistic teacher. But why waste the great Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, Richard Harris, Jason Isaacs, Fiona Shaw, John Cleese, Julie Walters and, most tragic of all, Alan Rickman in nothing roles that demand but a tenth of their formidable talents? They're simply window dressing to up the class quotient. . . .

(Italics added.)
Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, November 22, 2002

From United Press International
November 14, 2002 Thursday
HEADLINE: Film of the Week: New 'Harry Potter'
BYLINE: By STEVE SAILER
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES, Nov. 14 (UPI)

. . . The great Maggie Smith ("The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie") and the should-have-been-great Richard Harris ("This Sporting Life") have bigger roles than in the first film, but are supposed to be so kindly that they don't register fully. (If you want to see Harris' most entertaining performance of his final year, check out the late rogue's turn in "Count of Monte Cristo," now out on video.)

Even Alan Rickman, who stole the original show as the foreboding Professor Snape, is largely disarmed. . . .

Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, November 22, 2002

The Stage
November 14, 2002
SECTION: Pg. 2
HEADLINE: Starry Hampstead send-off

The stars came out for the closing night of Hampstead Theatre before its move to a new GBP 15.6 million site early next year. Ewan McGregor, Alan Rickman, Richard Wilson and Mike Leigh went to see the last performance of Leigh's Abigail's Party in the theatre, which has been housed in a temporary structure for the last 40 years. After the show on November 9, the audience was invited to take part in an auction in which memorabilia was sold.

A spokeswoman for the theatre said: "We raised more than GBP 3,500 through the auction, which will go towards the cost of the new building." The new theatre will be the first new stand-alone producing theatre built in London since 1976 and will have a large studio.

Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, November 22, 2002

The Stage
November 14, 2002
SECTION: Pg. 1
HEADLINE: STARS LEAD EQUITY MEMBERSHIP DRIVE; Film and TV celebrities front union recruitment campaign
BYLINE: BY JOANNA TAYLOR

Ewan McGregor and Sam West are fronting an Equity campaign to recruit performers who have let their membership lapse or who have not signed up to join the union. A letter written by McGregor has been sent to actors in film, television and radio, while a forthcoming publicity drive headed by West will focus on encouraging theatre performers to come back to Equity. The letter from McGregor is accompanied by a leaflet entitled 'There's never been a better time to be in Equity', highlighting the union's new agreement for UK feature films that was ratified earlier this year and which offers performers a share of a film's profits for the first time. In the letter, McGregor says: "We are weaker on our own than if we stand together. The recent dispute with the film producers proved this."

McGregor goes on to cite the "justifiably huge settlement" won by the widow of Roy Kinnear after her husband died while filming The Return of the Musketeers. Without the help of Equity, she could have been left with very little, he warned.

The actor added: "Actors set up this union 75 years ago to stop the employers exploiting them and we need it as much now as we did then. Our love of what we do makes us vulnerable. Without Equity to negotiate decent minimum standards, the lot of most working actors would be far worse."

The leaflet lists those well-known performers who supported Equity's campaign for fair film payments - among them Alan Rickman, Brenda Blethyn and Brian Blessed.

Equity membership suffered serious decline in the previous decade but a recruitment and retention drive has seen figures increase. Now the union is hoping that this will be the first of a series of initiatives involving eminent actors encouraging the support of their contemporaries.

General secretary Ian McGarry said: "The involvement of Ewan and a huge list of other prominent performers was crucial to Equity's historic agreement for UK feature films. I am absolutely delighted that Ewan has agreed to write to working performers and I feel that there will be a very positive response to his appeal."

Meanwhile, McGregor has resigned from Natural Nylon, the film and theatre production company that he cofounded with fellow British actors Jude Law, Jonny Lee Miller, Sean Pertwee and Sadie Frost, due to a busy filming schedule which left him with little time to fulfil his commitments to the company.

Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, November 22, 2002

From Slate Magazine
November 14, 2002, Thursday
SECTION: movies
HEADLINE: Goody-Two-Brooms
BYLINE: David Edelstein

. . . Branagh's genius almost distracts you from the fact that this billion-dollar English cast has been otherwise criminally frittered away. Thanks to her voice, with its weird, helium-infused sensuality, Shirley Henderson makes an impression as a ghost who haunts the ladies' loo. But Alan Rickman, who nearly walked off with the last film as the sour Professor Snape, resembles here a tired, queeny refugee from a Greenwich Village Halloween parade. Robbie Coltrane's Hagrid is at one point carted off to a horrific prison. Even so, he has no chance to deepen the portrait he established in Sorceror's Stone. And what kind of director could confine the greatest living English-language comedienne, Maggie Smith, to a few blas reaction shots? What kind of director could confine the most resourceful of all living British farceurs, John Cleese, to a couple of monosyllabic drift-throughs as a semi-decapitated ghost? A director with more money than talent. . . . .

Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, November 22, 2002

From The Washington Post
November 15, 2002, Friday, Final Edition
SECTION: WEEKEND; Pg. T41
HEADLINE: 'Harry's' Slight Sophomore Slump
BYLINE: Desson Howe, Washington Post Staff Writer

. . . But enough of the plot, let's get to other things. Let's look at this movie as the glass half full rather than half empty. Sure, it's too bad that the funnier members of the cast, including Robbie Coltrane (as Hagrid), Alan Rickman (Professor Severus Snape), Griffiths and Julie Walters (Ron's Mom, Mrs. Weasley), are rendered into near-cameo players. . . .

Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, November 22, 2002

From Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
November 15, 2002, Friday, Metro Edition
SECTION: VARIETY / FREETIME; Pg. 1E
HEADLINE: A scarier Harry; Harry Potter casts a stronger charm the second time around in the darker, faster-paced "Chamber of Secrets."
BYLINE: Jeff Strickler; Staff Writer

. . . . . . . . . .
Adults also might wish that Columbus had wrangled more screen time for the all-star supporting cast that includes the late Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane. In particular, Smith and Rickman are assigned little more than glorified cameos. . . .

Georgiana (Ah! So that's where we saw 'Myrtle' before!)
Seattle - Wednesday, November 20, 2002

From The Seattle Times
November 15, 2002, Friday Fourth Edition
SECTION: ROP ZONE; MovieTimes; Pg. H19
LENGTH: 850 words
HEADLINE: Second time's a charm: 'Harry Potter' sequel sparkles with magic
BYLINE: Moira Macdonald; Seattle Times movie critic

. . . . . . . . . .
But never mind the future -- the film that arrives on screen this week (with refreshingly less hype than last year) has more than its share of enchantment. Radcliffe, Grint and Watson, more comfortable this time around, interact with the ease of old friends. Robbie Coltrane's kind giant Hagrid and Alan Rickman's bone-white Professor Snape are a welcome sight, as is Smith's crotchety professor and Julie Walters' bubbly ginger-haired mama witch, Mrs. Weasley.

Kenneth Branagh, as the foppish new teacher Gilderoy Lockhart, gives perhaps his loosest, silliest performance ever: He's constantly adjusting himself for the best possible camera angle, grinning as if to expose as many pearly-white teeth as possible. Shirley Henderson ("Topsy-Turvy," "Bridget Jones's Diary"), her voice sounding like she's inhaled a very British type of helium, joins the cast as Moaning Myrtle, a pigtailed ghost who lurks in the girls' bathroom. Jason Isaacs is nicely slithery as Lucius Malfoy, father of Harry's blond nemesis Draco (Tom Felton, looking more and more like some kind of junior albino vampire). . . .

Georgiana (Ah! So that's where we saw 'Myrtle' before!)
Seattle - Wednesday, November 20, 2002

From The San Francisco Chronicle
NOVEMBER 15, 2002, FRIDAY, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: DAILY DATEBOOK; Pg. D1
HEADLINE: Tortured 'Chamber'; Overblown effects bury story, sweetness of Potter sequel
SOURCE: Chronicle Movie Critic
BYLINE: Mick LaSalle

. . . . . . . . . .
Other big names in the cast have no opportunities to stand out. The late Richard Harris lends weariness and grandeur to the role of headmaster Dumbledore, but Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman barely register. Indeed, it's striking that, for all the British talent assembled here (it has an all-British cast), the movie hardly feels English in atmosphere or mood. There's no feeling of history, no sense of mystery, no smell of wood smoke in the air. . . .

Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, November 20, 2002

From The Denver Post
November 15, 2002 Friday 1ST EDITION
SECTION: WEEKEND; Pg. F-01
HEADLINE: Blizzard of Wizards 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' a heaping helping of frights, delights
BYLINE: Steven Rosen, Denver Post Movie Critic

. . . . . . . . . .
One reason 'Chamber of Secrets' is so long is that it allows room for the many returning characters from 'Sorcerer's Stone,' while making space for some new ones. With Maggie Smith, Julie Walters, Fiona Shaw, Alan Rickman, John Cleese and Robbie Coltrane, the 'Harry Potter' series has become a kind of 'great reward' for esteemed British actors. . . .

Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, November 20, 2002

From The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
November 15, 2002 Friday Final Edition
SECTION: APPEAL; Pg. E1
HEADLINE: HARRY'S 2ND SCHOOL YEAR IS MYSTERIOUS, SPELLBINDING
BYLINE: Hallie Lynn Woodward Special to The Commercial Appeal

EDITOR'S NOTE: In addition to a review from movie critic John Beifuss, The Commercial Appeal asked 15-year-old Hallie Lyn Woodward to give her take on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, because if is geared toward young audiences. Hallie regularly writes reviews for The DeSoto Appeal.

. . . . . . . . . .
Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, and Alan Rickman are brilliant. Rupert Grint, as Ron, is a cutie, but needs to be careful of his classic smirk and grimace. Finally, the late Richard Harris, as Dumbledore, will be sadly missed.

Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, November 20, 2002

From he Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
November 15, 2002 Friday Final Edition
SECTION: APPEAL; Pg. E1
HEADLINE: WELCOME BACK POTTER - BY-THE-BOOK SEQUEL IS LONG ON EASY FUN, SHORT ON MAGIC
BYLINE: John Beifuss beifuss@gomemphis.com

. . . Other returning characters include Hagrid the gamekeeper (Robbie Coltrane), Professor Minerva McGonagall (Maggie Smith), the seemingly sinister Professor Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) and the ghostly Nearly Headless Nick (John Cleese), to name just a few (whatever Rowling's talents, she has a genius for devising clever names).

Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, November 20, 2002

From The Boston Globe
November 15, 2002, Friday,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: ARTS; Pg. C1

HEADLINE: WEEKEND / MOVIE REVIEW Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Directed by: Chris Columbus Screenplay by: Steve Kloves Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Kenneth Branagh, Richard Harris At: Boston Common, Fenway, suburbs Running time: 161 minutes Rated: PG (scary moments, some creature violence, mild language***;
THE BOY WIZARD WORKS HIS ON-SCREEN MAGIC AGAIN IN 'CHAMBER OF SECRETS' THE SPELL LASTS IN NEW 'HARRY POTTER'
BYLINE: By Ty Burr, Globe Staff

The first thing you should know is that it's all here. Moaning Myrtle, the Whomping Willow, mandrake roots, the Howler - the heaping lot of it.

. . . . . . . . . .
Much of the rest feels either comfortably familiar or like business as usual. Still, a doubter can relax knowing that characters are in the hands of reliable Brits such as Alan Rickman (Severus Snape), Jason Isaacs (sneering Lucius Malfoy), Miriam Margolyes (Professor Sprout), and Shirley Henderson (sly and whining and oddly sexy as a ghost who haunts the girls loo). As for Harry, Hermione, and Ron, they continue to be brought effectively to life by stalwart Radcliffe, charming Watson, and amusing Grint, even if the last overdoes the bug-eyed grimaces.

Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, November 20, 2002

From The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
November 15, 2002 Friday Home Edition
SECTION: Preview; Pg. 1P
HEADLINE: AT THE MOVIES: Harry's ssssecret: He's back and even better
BYLINE: ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
SOURCE: AJC

REVIEW
"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"
Grade: A-

. . . . . . . . . .
Everyone, on and off the faculty, is back. There's Maggie Smith as the strict but benevolent Professor McGonagall; Alan Rickman as the cold-eyed Professor Snape; Julie Walters as the Weasleys' generally merry mom; and, of course, dear Harris, as the wise and wonderful Dumbledore (this was Harris' last film). The crowd-pleasing giant, Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane), is even given his own heroic entrance. . . .

We're often reminded of what was magical in the first film (and continues to be so here) --- everything from the school's maze of shifting staircases to the frail, delicate flutter of Harris' distinctive parchment-thin voice. However, there are some problems. Smith and Rickman have almost no screen time. A brief wizard duel between Branagh and Rickman is so neatly done you wish there had been more scenes like it. And even though "Chamber of Secrets" is a vast improvement, Columbus's directorial touch remains more caring than inspired.

Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, November 20, 2002

Copyright 2002 Times Newspapers Limited
The Times (London)
November 16, 2002, Saturday
SECTION: Features; Times Magazine 49
HEADLINE: A genius for evil
BYLINE: Jasper Rees

Brian Cox has covered all the theatrical greats from hamlet to king lear, but it's his talent for playing the villain that has made him an unlikely hot property in hollywood

Brian Cox is one of those actors. Know the face, know the name, know he's terribly distinguished, seen him in loads of things. Just remind me who he is again.

It's axiomatic in Hollywood that British actors make superior baddies, owing to their crisp consonants and haughty vowels. But when you examine it, you realise that most of them only ever play a couple of villains before pulling out and coming home. Think Jeremy Irons, Alan Rickman, Steven Berkoff. . . .

Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, November 20, 2002

From Toronto Star
November 17, 2002 Sunday Ontario Edition
SECTION: STARSHIP; Pg. B06
HEADLINE: Kid Flicks
BYLINE: Jeremy Large

. . . After a harrowing adventure in a flying car, Harry, Ron Weasly (Rupert Grint), and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) are reunited at Hogwarts, where they resume classes, including Potions with sadistic Professor Severus Snape (Alan Rickman). . . .
Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, November 20, 2002

From Independent on Sunday (London)
November 17, 2002, Sunday
SECTION: ARTS ETC; Pg. 9
HEADLINE: THE CRITICS: ALSO SHOWING: THERE'S A MONSTER AT HOGWARTS... PUBERTY
BYLINE: Nicholas Barber

. . . a murderous creature is stalking the corridors. Has it been conjured up by the malevolent Professor Snape (Alan Rickman), or by Moaning Myrtle (Shirley Henderson), the glum ghost who haunts the girls' toilets, or by the school's narcissistic new teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, played with panache by Kenneth Branagh?
Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, November 20, 2002

SET THOSE UK VCR'S:

The Times (London)
November 18, 2002, Monday
SECTION: Features; Times 2; 19
HEADLINE: Today's highlights

DEAD RINGERS
BBC Two, 9pm

The comedy sketch transfers from radio to television with impressions of a host of familiar faces including Nigella Lawson, David Dickinson (below), Russell Crowe and Alan Rickman. PAGE 24
Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, November 20, 2002

From Newsweek
November 18, 2002, U.S. Edition
SECTION: ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT; Pg. 76
HEADLINE: Mild About 'Harry'
BYLINE: By David Ansen

HIGHLIGHT:
'Chamber of Secrets' is finally here: Our precocious Hogwarts wizards are bursting with confidence, but the new film has more monsters and mayhem than magic

. . . Alan Rickman, the highlight of "Sorcerer's Stone," takes a back seat here; villainy honors go to Jason Isaacs's Lucius Malfoy (blond father of blond Draco). Isaacs, memorable as the bad Brit in "The Patriot," oozes freeze-dried evil. Sadly, the recent death of Richard Harris adds a special poignance to his final turn as the great wizard Dumbledore. His sweet, whispery line readings sound as if they're etched on delicate, aged parchment. . . .

Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, November 20, 2002

Cinema: Potter casts his usual spell
By Nigel Andrews Financial Times
Published: November 13 2002 20:17
HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS (PG)
Chris Columbus

There is nothing you can do about small children. Before the curtains parted at the preview I attended for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets they chattered, screamed, ate, slurped drinks, ran up and down aisles, stabbed people accidentally with Harry Potter wands, and behaved as if only a seismic event could shut them up. Then came the seismic event. For these beings a Harry Potter film is a stirring from the netherworld, a movement of tectonic plates in the imagination, a shaking of molten forces from the Earth's core - pretty much what the Ring cycle is to grownups, and I don't mean the Ring cycle about to go bumper-to- bumper with Potter at pre-Christmas cinemas.

The homunculi were quiet for an amazing two hours and 40 minutes. Their silence was broken only by raptly obedient "oohs", "aahs", giggles and gasps. All it takes to hypnotise the young, evidently, is the sight of a bespectacled schoolboy duelling demon forces in a crag-pedestalled school where every communal loo, I am beginning to learn, not having read the books, leads into deadly lairs containing philosopher's stones, multi-headed mongrels or giant serpents. (Is there something we should be told about J.K. Rowling's toilet training?)

I don't know where Hogwarts comes in Britain's league table of schools but its motto is obviously "Education, education education - we'll have none of it." Classes are rare; pupils learn on the job. Wizardry skills are summoned for everything from breaking one's specs - "Reparate lensi!" chants Hermione, or somesuch, when Harry suffers hairline fissure to his NHS grannies during teleportation to St Pancras - to telling an army of super-spiders in a dark forest to go somewhere else. "Arachnidus gigantissimus takus hikus!" (Again, my memory may be inexact.)

This Potter film is better than the last, or perhaps we are just being stunned into surrender. For a school with scarcely any lessons the lineup of teachers is alarmingly large and talented. Maggie Smith gurgles magisterially, Alan Rickman sneers lambently in an Alice Cooper wig, Richard Harris (RIP) singsongs and soothsays, and Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart hams feyly in a blond wig and releases fetching Cornish pixies from a jar.

The digitised creatures are all astounding. The flying blue pixies are so vivid that I mentally reached for a Raid canister. Dobby, the Uriah Heep-like "house elf", is a delight. The spiders caused horrified gasps in my immediate neighbours, aged between two and nine, who were clearly members of the Ron Weasley Fan Club. They kept cheering Harry's redhaired, rubber- expressioned mate (splendidly played by Rupert Grant) and giggled empathetically at his silent grimaces when the eight-legged wonders started abseiling from a cave ceiling. As for the climactic serpent, it is as long as the M4 and even more dangerous to cross, a triumph for herpetological pixelisation. I shall be sorry if the series goes on improving like this. There will be almost no room for critical rudeness at all.
Claudia
New Zealand - Wednesday, November 13, 2002

Another review of Harry Potter : COS, the reviewer likes AR's performance alot :)

The whole review can be found here : http://www.filmhobbit.com/cgi-bin/movies/movies.cgi?action=showreview&review=harrypotter2

The part about AR:
At least Alan Rickman again makes a wonderful impression. The guy eats up his role! Give me an hour and I could write a book on why what he’s doing with Professor Snape is sheer brilliance! Just standing there staring he says more than any of the others do in an hour of running about and yammering about silly games. You’re never sure what he’s thinking. Each moment with Snape is a walk on the edge, a hairline of hidden intentions in which you’re never quite sure whose side Snape is actually on.
Fitz
- Wednesday, November 13, 2002

Love Actually - Universal Pictures announced November 7, 2003 as the US release date for Love Actually.

Start counting down the days...
Jody
CA USA - Friday, November 08, 2002

See below. Very very sold out, of course.
A host of stars will attend the final performance tomorrow night, Saturday 9 November 2002, at the old Hampstead Theatre, housed for 40 years in a now dilapidated portakabin.
Ewan McGregor, Mike Leigh, Alan Rickman, Geraldine James, Richard Wilson, Terry Johnson, Stephen Rea are amongst the host of actors, directors and writers connected with the theatre's history who are due to attend the farewell event, a performance of Leigh's classic black comedy Abigail's Party, which premiered at the theatre 25 years ago and which transfers to the West End next month. Also attending will be previous artistic directors including founder James Roose-Evans and Michael Attenborough (now heading up the Almeida Theatre).

Rebecca
- Friday, November 08, 2002

Copyright 2002 Express Newspapers
Daily Star
November 6, 2002
SECTION: COLUMNS; Pg. 10
HEADLINE: BITCHES WITH JULIA ETHERINGTON, MEL MYERS AND AMY WATTS; SPOTTED

IN LONDON. . .

Alan Rickman going over his lines as he got out of a cab in Westbourne Grove; Michelle Collins strolling in Leicester Square; Notting Hill star Rhys Ifans drinking in the VIP bar at The Vines gig at Shepherd's Bush.

And Gloria Huniford at Romeo and Juliet at The Piccadilly Theatre

Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, November 06, 2002

Another premiere photo (scroll to the bottom of the page) from the Chris Rankin web-site.

Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
TX USA - Tuesday, November 05, 2002

Copyright 2002 NEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS LTD
The Sun
November 4, 2002
HEADLINE: SPROG WARTS
BYLINE: Martel Maxwell

Stars bring kids to Potter premiere

. . . Also there from the cast were Robbie Coltrane, Kenneth Branagh and Alan Rickman, who all stopped to chat to fans. . . .

Georgiana
Seattle - Tuesday, November 05, 2002

Copyright 2002 NEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS LTD
The Sun
November 4, 2002
SECTION: REVIEW
HEADLINE: MEANER, MOODIER-AND EVEN MORE MAGNIFICENT
BYLINE: Dominic Mohan

HE'S back -and this fantastic film is Harry Potter with attitude.

. . . But the time will fly by -just like the Weasleys' aerodynamic Ford Anglia - thanks to top performances from Kenneth Branagh, as bungling Professor Lockhart, and Alan Rickman, as his evil rival Professor Snape. . . .
Georgiana
Seattle - Tuesday, November 05, 2002

Another AR Premiere pic.
Sue
England - Monday, November 04, 2002

Alan Rickman Looking Slightly P****d Off at HP Premiere
You guess
- Monday, November 04, 2002

Alan Rickman and Christopher Columbus at HP Party
Sue
Yes , THAT is a glass between his legs............, England - Monday, November 04, 2002

Alan Rickman and Rupert Grinch at HP Party
Sue
England - Monday, November 04, 2002

AR at HP Premiere
Sue
England - Monday, November 04, 2002

Another HP COS review in Todays Independent
Sue
England - Monday, November 04, 2002

Article onHP COS inTodays Guardian
Sue
England - Monday, November 04, 2002

From . . .

Copyright 2002 MGN Ltd.
The People
November 3, 2002, Sunday
SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 18
HEADLINE: I DON'T WANT TO BE HARRY POTTER FOR EVER; AS THE SECOND HARRY POTTER MOVIE HITS OUR SCREENS, CHILD STAR DANIEL RADCLIFFE REVEALS HIS OWN SECRETS
BYLINE: Kevin Lewin And Amanda Lornie/wenn

HIGHLIGHT:
MAGIC MOMENTS: Daniel plays the boy who's inspired the world; POT; LUCK: Daniel at the London premiere of Philosopher's Stone with author JK; Rowling and co-stars Rupert Brint and Emma Watson

. . . . . . . . . .
"There's some amazing scenes with some really amazing people - Kenneth Branagh and Alan Rickman together were fantastic to watch, and Jason Isaacs is just one of the nicest people. It does take you aback when you watch these terrific actors at work. They're true role models, and taught me a lot.

"I'm such a lucky boy. I get to play a character who has inspired children all over the world. It's just amazing and something to be very proud of. But I'm just looking forward to the day I can finally put down my wand."

Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, November 04, 2002

From Sunday, Oct. 3, LA Times Calendar section, talking about the two sequels Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings:

...The script focuses on the three(or four, if you count Draco Malfoy) main characters, although the faculty of Hogwarts remains a Who's Who in British theater. Alan Rickman's delicious Professor Snape gets less screen time, but the addition of Kenneth Branagh as the new defense against the dark arts instructor, Gilderoy Lockhart, and Jason Isaacs as Draco's reptilian father, Lucius, may placate adult audiences.

"The first movie, I wanted more Alan Rickman," Columbus said. "The second movie, I wanted more Alan Rickman. But we focused on the story, which follows the kids."

AR also got a thumb-sized b/w picture in an article (in the same newspaper), discussing films set in boarding schools:

under the heading 'mean teacher', "Professor Snape (Alan Rickman) the role Tim Roth passed on to make "Planets of the Apes."

Tim Roth's loss, I say. Though he does make a delicious villian as well. Check out Rob Roy, in which he plays a ruthless artistocrat.

Talking about villains, in the same newspaper (I just devoured the paper today, could you tell?), in an article titled "The best of the sequels' worst villains":

Equipped with British accents, rotten childhoods, spy-mobiles, super-sized shoulder pads and whipping sticks, a new swarm of villains will try to make life miserable for heroes of the season's big sequels.

Audiences hated Jason Isaacs as cruel Col. Willian Tavington in "The Patriot": the English actor hopes they'll feel the same way about Lucius Malfoy in "Harry Potter and the Chamnber of Secrets" (Nov. 15).

Lucius, abusive father to nasty Hogwarts student Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton,) wants to keep Wizard bloodlines "pure" and despises half-mortal interloper Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe). Originally, Lucius had short gray hair and a suit. Isaacs wanted to have more fun than that, so he convinced director Chris Columbus to let Lucius have long blond hair, "floor-length ermine and fur and velvet and a walking cane."

I'm just giddy w/ anticipation until Nov. 15. Feel like a 11-yr old, waiting for Cmas to come around. I foresee repeated viewings of this one. My apolgies for any spelling mistakes. Typed it all rather fast and too lazy to double-check.
jody
CA USA - Sunday, November 03, 2002

Copyright 2002 The Press Association Limited
Press Association
November 3, 2002, Sunday
SECTION: HOME NEWS
HEADLINE: HARRY POTTER FEVER IS BACK
BYLINE: Laura Elston, PA News

The world premiere of the widely anticipated new Harry Potter film was taking place today.

Fans of schoolboy wizard Harry and his magical adventures were expected to gather outside the Odeon cinema in Leicester Square, London, in the hope of catching a glimpse of their favourite characters arriving at the screening. But the premiere was likely to be tinged with sadness following the recent death of Richard Harris, who starred in the films as Professor Albus Dumbledore - head of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

In the latest tale, entitled Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry, played by teenage star Daniel Radcliffe, confronts a sinister force which is terrorising his school.

The bespectacled hero is aided by his dependable friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger - played by Rupert Grint and Emma Watson - as they enter the second year at the wizard academy.

Based on the second of JK Rowling's hit books, the movie follows last year's blockbuster Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Kenneth Branagh has joined the cast as the vain and flamboyant Gilderoy Lockhart, the school's new Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts.

There are also repeat roles for Alan Rickman as the stoney-faced professor of potions Severus Snape, Dame Maggie Smith as Professor Minerva McGonagall, and Robbie Coltrane as the friendly giant Hagrid.

Director Chris Columbus has described the new film as "darker and funnier" than the last, with the character of Harry exuding "more confidence and strength".

The film is being released in the UK and the US on November 15.

Georgiana
Seattle - Sunday, November 03, 2002

Today's (2 Nov) Mirror (UK) includes a "'Harry Potter' Pull-out" which includes:

SEVERUS SNAPE (second left) The Potions Master and Head of Slytherin, played by Alan Rickman, particularly dislikes Harry and makes his life hell.

Georgiana
Seattle - Saturday, November 02, 2002

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